This invention relates generally to the manufacture of food products of the type including a filling and a cooked farinaceous dough surrounding the filling. It also relates to food products resulting from such methods.
A wide variety of edible products have been made by commercial bakers and in the home which comprise a filling of edible material, such as a fruit jam, surrounded by dough that has been cooked as by baking or deep-fat frying. It is recognized that such methods and products have certain limitations. Particularly, the filler is heated during cooking, which limits the character of filling materials that can be used and may impair the quality and flavor of the finished product. If the filling is liquified during cooking, it is partially absorbed into the surrounding dough, and may extrude from the product with the result that it causes burning and sticking to a baking pan or pollution of hot oil used in deep-fat frying. To avoid or minimize liquefaction during cooking, the filling may be formulated with stabilizers which impart viscosity and body, such as starch, cereal flour, gums and the like. This practice tends to impair the flavor of the product, and in any event does not prevent flavor impairment or other deterioration of heat-sensitive components.
Some edible products have been made with a layer of cooked dough surrounding a frozen dessert like ice cream. A thin layer of unleavened dough is wrapped about a mass of frozen ice cream and the assembly is immersed in hot fat for a sufficient time to cook and brown the dough. Upon removal from the fat, the product is served for immediate consumption, usually by introducing it into a dish containing a topping like chocolate syrup. This method is useable for restaurants and like establishments where the products are being made for immediate serving, but it is not applicable to present-day marketing methods where it is necessary to store products for substantial periods before they reach the hands of the consumer. The ice cream filling is partially melted during the processing, and the thin cooked dough is relatively fragile. The use of thicker dough would require longer baking time which would cause further melting of the filling.
A characteristic of the above methods and products is that during the cooking period the heated dough is in physical contact with the filling whereby heat is directly conducted to the filling material. Also there is no support for the dough during or after cooking except for the support that it may have because of its association with the filling, whereby breakage is apt to occur during processing or subsequent handling. The melted portion of the filling is directly in contact with and penetrates the dough during and after cooking, thus modifying the strength and character of the dough.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,260,694 dated July 19, 1966, and 3,335,015 dated Aug. 8, 1967, disclose methods for the dehydration of various food products by immersing the product in hot oil being subjected to a partial vacuum, the oil being at such a temperature as to cause rapid evolution of water vapor. The prime objective of such methods is to obtain rapid evolution of moisture, thus minimizing the time period over which the product is subjected to an elevated temperature. One of the cooking techniques hereinafter disclosed makes use of features of the method disclosed in these patents.